Amanda Holden has opened up about her highly-publicised divorce from Les Dennis.
The Britain's Got Talent judge, 54, met the comedian, 72, on a production of The Sound of Music at Bournemouth's Pavilion Theatre back in 1993.
A couple years later, they got married in Dorset - she was 24 at the time and he was 42 - 18 years her senior.
Their relationship broke down when a temporary separation revealed that Holden had a five-week affair with Men Behaving Badly actor Neil Morrissey, 63.
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Although they tried to work things out, the pair officially divorced in 2003, with Holden calling it the ‘worst time of her life’.
During the latest episode of BBC One travel series, Amanda & Alan’s Greek Job, she reflected on her life since that period of time.
“I mean, obviously we’ve both been through a divorce, we’ve both made mistakes and as much as I regret hurting people maybe, or causing chaos, it shapes you to who you are in this moment,” she told Alan Carr.
“And I think life is too short to have regrets.”
Alan, who is currently single following his split from Paul Drayton in 2022 after 13 years together, added: “I mean it’s not decisions for me but knowing your worth and the amount of times I’ve been walked over and people have demeaned me.
“There’s time that I’d wished I’d said no, I wish I’d been a bit bolder and a bit stronger.”
In her 2013 autobiography No Holding Back, the mum-of-two admitted that she and Dennis were opposites from the get-go.
When they first met, she thought he was 'sad', 'quiet' and 'troubled', which made her 'instinctively wanting to help'.
"At first he thought I was loud, overconfident and a bit brash, which was probably true," Holden said.
"I thought he was a bit of a miserable sod."
The pair struck up a friendship on their days off and often went bowling together.
"I don't think I consciously fancied him at this stage," she recalled.
It later emerged that she was having an affair with her Happy Birthday Shakespeare co-star, Morrissey.
Speaking to the Express in 2009, she said: “I found the fall from grace incredibly hard to deal with.
“I can’t bear not to be liked. Then I had an affair and overnight turned into this awful person.
“There are no hard feelings with Les. I wish him the best but we’ve both moved on.”
Topics: Amanda Holden, Celebrity, Celebrity News, Sex and Relationships
Anish Vij